New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-08-30
will 90 on that will have more or less direct
bearing upon the cardinal issae Of next year.
TARIFF RESPONSIBILITY.


Falsehoods about the tariff appear to be
regarded by Democrats as offences which the
recording angel never sees The dishonest
attitude of that party. pretending In PennsyL
yania and New-Jerscy to favor protection, and
in Kentucky TO hold free trade its cardinal
doctrine, influences thoughts and utterances
ON that aut stion TO such an extent that at
last men truthful in every other relation OF
life. who can discuss other subjects with
candor and intellectual honesty, when they
come to talk about the tariff slip into untruth
as if they were lneal descendants of Ananias.
One of the false statements most frequently
heard, that the Republican party, being re-
sponsible for the protective policy and for
protective enactments generally, is responsible
for each detail and feature of every such act,
Is now rcit Grated by "The Louisville Courier
Journal journal from which better things
might be expected.
The Republican party cast nearly all the
votes by which the tariff of 1888 was finally
passed Only one Democratic vote in the
Senate and seventeen in the House were cast
for the adoption Of the conference report
Republicans in Congress are beyond question
responsible for the general policy and objects
of that measure, for only two of them in the
Senate and ten in the House voted against it,
But certain of it's provisions were fastened
upon the bill almost exclusively by Demo
cratic votes 1t is truth perfectly well
known that the Democrats were thus rcspon-
sible for certain features of that act, which
the Republicans were finally obliged to accept
or else to abandon the bill altogether. Those
very provisions have since caused great mis-
chief and that result was deliberately antici-
pated by Democrats when the bill was under
discussion The history is important, not only
in its bearing upon the tariff question, but as
illustrating the essential disloyalty of the Dem
ocratic party.
1t is loyal to seek the welfare of the country,
the faithful enforcement of it's laws, the Sue
cessful working of its Government 1t is
essentially disloyh to sacrifice the public well
fare in order that Government may be dis
credited, its policy may work mischief and
an opposition party may thus succeed Her
Maesty's loyal Opposition phrase not des-
titute of meaning would hold it moral treason
to seek the overthrow of national policy by
causing or widening defects in it, perniciOus
to the public welfare, in order to have it con-
demned and abandoned The corps COM
mander who did not believe in Mcclellan or
in Grant as General, and therefore sought
his failure by causing the defeat OF the army,
would clearly have been guilty of treason
his duty to the country was to make as com
plete and successful as possible the efforts
directed by the lawfully constituted authorities
Precisely so in aw-mabing, it Is essentially
disloyal to vote for amendments known to be
damaging to the public welfare, in order to
make the general policy of the Government
end in disaster and in its abandonment
This is a crime which the Democratic party
In Congress has committed every time pro-
tcctivc tariff has been under consideration.
The chief aim of the measure, the general
plan of the campaign, being determined by
the lawfully constituted majority, the patriotic
duty of every member of the mi
nority is to make that measure
rs perfect for its purpose as possible But
Democrats have in every case laborcd to make
tariff bills as defec tive and faulty as possible,
In order to be able TO say afterward Z" Sec
how badly this measure works. In an act
framed for protection, for instance, cxcep-
tionally low duties on a particular kind OF iron
or steel manufacture, such as wire rods or tin
plates or cotton ties, must tend to make the
measure work badly, to render 1t harmful to
the country But Democra in Congress
fought week after week for just such amend
ments, at war with the general plan of the
bill, striving to make the measure as defective
as they could so that it should injure the
as much as possible. Their disoyal
hope was that it's defect would turn public
in their favor. That was just as
unpatriotic in spirit as the aid and comfOrt
given during the war by the same party to
rebels against the Government.